F1, what do you think should have been done?

Well, having just watched the formula 1, have to admit that I'm extremely disappointed. Commonsense just didn't appear. I know the rules are the rules, but surely the FIA should see sense in the spirit of the sport.

What's the point in sending six cars out onto the track? That's not a race.

Obviously, the fault ultimately lies with Michelin, as their tyres weren't up to the task, but that's no excuse. The suggested chicane should have been put in, and everyone should have gone out. Even if the race was considered void with relation to the championship, at least they'd have put a decent show on. It is afterall, fundamentally, a multi-million pound roadshow. Those people had paid at least $80 just for their tickets, never mind the price of accomodation and getting there. They deserved better than to see six cars driving around in circles for an hour.

F1's been struggling to get a foothold in the states for a long time, and just seemed to be getting there...now, has it gone and shot itself in the metaphorical foot?

Your thoughts please...

Was that on cbs? I thought it was an indy car race and looking for danica patrick after i watched the nascar race on fox.

Nascar too has their share of tire problems, both from too much camber, too little air pressure and parts of the fender bracing flexing under the load and rubbing the tire.

Here is a short article... Sounds like the fans at the track were not happy.

ABC News

-Bill

Here's the page from the UK coverage.

ITV F1 Page

F1 is now a joke compared to the fantastic races it enjoyed during the 60s, 70s and 80s. There are far too many rules and regulations to make it seem even remotely like a sport.

I cannot remember the last time i saw what could be called a battle for position on the track. The outcome of nearly every race is decided on by pitstop strageties (assuming you're not Schumacher), which doesnt make for exciting veiwing.

What should have been done? Well the FIA did the right thing IMHO, they are there to uphold the rules. That some of the rules are completely assinine is another matter...

Several of the teams and manufacturers have been threatening for some time to break away and form their own racing series. I hope they do it sooner rather than later.

I've been an F1 fan since the 60's. The rule changes for this season actually seem to have been able to bring more teams into the points chase. So, what happened this weekend? Michelin seems to have forgotten to prep tires for a track that F1 has run for a few years now. The teams running on Michelins then had to choose between risking too many tire changes and the penalties that would bring, slowing dramatically in the corners that would have caused tires to possible fail, or getting every other team to agree to installing a chicane. Whether or not it was Ferrari that held out doesn't actually matter.

What happened was poor planning on the part of Michelin and also (IMO) a complete failure on the part of the FIA to realize that worrying about championship points in this case would cost lost revenue and maybe the entire market in the US.

It would not surprise me to see yet another multi-year gap before F1 returns to the US. Squabbles and poor marketing in the US have taken Grand Prix racing away from this country before, and very well might do it again.

When are they going to see that driver and team points are less important than bulding an audience and lucrative market here?

[ QUOTE ]
Zelandeth said:
Well, having just watched the formula 1, have to admit that I'm extremely disappointed. Commonsense just didn't appear. I know the rules are the rules, but surely the FIA should see sense in the spirit of the sport.

What's the point in sending six cars out onto the track? That's not a race.

Obviously, the fault ultimately lies with Michelin, as their tyres weren't up to the task, but that's no excuse. The suggested chicane should have been put in, and everyone should have gone out. Even if the race was considered void with relation to the championship, at least they'd have put a decent show on. It is afterall, fundamentally, a multi-million pound roadshow. Those people had paid at least $80 just for their tickets, never mind the price of accomodation and getting there. They deserved better than to see six cars driving around in circles for an hour.

F1's been struggling to get a foothold in the states for a long time, and just seemed to be getting there...now, has it gone and shot itself in the metaphorical foot?

Your thoughts please...

[/ QUOTE ]

FIA Didnt stop Others From Racing.
Michelin Tyre Runners were at disadvantage to run on this particular track, True. But Did you see how many times Shumi had Tyre Failure this season? Did it Stop him from Racing in those Circumstances? Wasent His life at Stake?

Giving Life Security as a reason is NO Basis to Stop the Race, The Life can be Lost even if there was One Car, One Good Set of Tyres...!!!

Michelin Runners are at Fault.. not the FIA .... It's Michelin Runners who decided to Stop.

Michelin Didnt Come up with Good Enough Tyres! As simple as that!

You cannot ask FIA Change Racetrack, just because Your Tyres are not Capable of running safely. If I had a Choice then, i would prefer MY own Track.. why go to any other track just to Race!!!

On the Other Hand, The Concept of Single Set of Tyres Itself is some what dangerous. I didnt Like it. The Earlier Format for Changing tyres as many times as you like was good.

The Concept of Penalty for a WornOut Tyre change is simply absurd. What will happen if It Rains? All drivers will have to change the Tyres... and All will be Penalized for it??? huh!

Just my 0.02$ Woth....

Main problem which caused the tyre failures to become an issue - which *would* have caught Bridgestone out too, had their American part (Firestone) not communicated the info that the surface of the track had this year been diamond cut (Because the Indy cars had been having grip issues). Michelin weren't aware of this. This is the only banked track in the F1 arena as far as I know, and certainly the only one with a diamond cut surface. The tyres were simply not designed to deal with that. The setup on an indycar and an F1 car are totally different. Indy is set up for one thing and one thing only, speed. F1 car is for handling. (Did you know that an F1 car could actually run upside down above I think it's 70mph due to the amount of downforce involved?).

All in all, it's a sequence of events which went horribly wrong in the wrong order.

The new rules I think are a good thing, as it's brought everyone a lot closer together, it's not just a predetermined conclusion that Schumacher's going to win (unless it rains, anyway). I don't know about the tyre rules though, and if it weren't for that, the race could have gone ahead this weekend too.

I'm very much doubting whether F1 in the states is going to recover from this.

I very much like that even though it was a SCREWED UP RACE, Tiago Montero got 3rd.

I don't really know what to say about the whole thing. I just finished watching it on Tivo.

Maybe the USA just ain't the right place for something as outright political as F1... but Laguna ? over in CA looks like a killer track for it!

My 1.5c after tax. I think all motorsports have been too highly regulated.

On a side note And slightly OT, Did anyone catch the Aussie V8 Supercars on the new $600 Million shanghai Circuit the other day???
A drain got dislodged and was poking up along the edge of the track. A Commodore comes around the bend at a good 160-80km an hour.

Cut the whole under carriage of the car in half. Straight through everything, besides hitting the gear box and continueing its way through the car. Put it this way..... you could see the tarmac through floor of the vehichile, and honestly the guy is very lucky to be alive. it was centermeters from his seat. It cut through a whole car. Imagine what it would do to a person.

Poor bugger isn't going to have much change out of 100 grand i would say.

ViRen: you can change to rain tires without penalty, and you can also change tires you "think" are damaged/dangerous without penalty. The latter rule would for example have allowed the Michelin teams to change the tires every 10 rounds without a penalty (except for the time used for changing them).

IMHO, the Michelin teams are at fault. The rules are clear and if you have bad tires, then you cannot win the race, but you still must race for the fans. If it means that (for security reasons) you will have to slow down in turn 13 or change tires every 10 rounds, then you will have to do that and you will probably not win the race, but you cannot just pull out. Think of all the people at the TV sets and especially all the people at the circuit! They travelled to Indianapolis (and paid for) to see a race.

faster and faster they go
more and more money to blow
adds everywhere, to many rules
all are but pawns, money fools
and what do they come to see
but the wrecks they show best on tv
time to go to the Demolition derby

Seems to me that the best solution was one that perhaps Ferarri (sp?), Jordan and Minardi likely voted against... (or maybe just Ferarri!)

If ALL cars did not have to slow down for the fasest corner, then somebody would have gotten creamed!

They should have forgone points and put on a damn race! Adding a non-regulation chicain(SP?) would have been better for EVERYONE except F, J and M... ESPECIALLY the thousands of Fans at the track and hundreds of thousands on TV!!!

Think I'll go over to SpeedTV.com and see what's being talked about!